• Intel's new CEO says the company is a 'willing buyer' as it looks to revitalize its business.
• It's a strong signal that Intel will use M&A to boost its AI and manufacturing strength.
• Here are 10 firms Intel could acquire, according to analysts, including GlobalFoundries and SiFive.

As competitors like Qualcomm and TSMC nip at Intel's heels, the $211 billion chip giant could use strategic acquisitions or mergers to stay ahead. Even CEO Pat Gelsinger has said the company is a "willing buyer," as it looks to revitalize its business and reclaim its reputation as the most innovative company in the processor space. 

"There will be consolidation in the industry," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "That trend will continue, and I expect that we're going to be a consolidator."

The company previously announced plans to invest $20 billion into building new chip-building factories — called fabs — and is reportedly also in talks to buy manufacturer GlobalFoundries, according to The Wall Street Journal (though GlobalFoundries denied participating in conversations and has now confidentially filed for an IPO, Reuters first reported).

Gelsinger, who rejoined the company from VMware in February, could be keeping his eyes peeled for other companies to acquire, especially as a Wall Street analyst slams the firm for being a "technology dinosaur" that needs to go "all-in on next generation technology."

Gelsinger played coy during the firm's second quarter earnings report in July: He said at the time that he doesn't think of M&A as "critical" right now, but also that the chip giant wouldn't "rule it out" given that the time seems ripe for deals overall.

"Our view is that industry consolidation is very likely," Gelsinger said on the earnings call on Thursday. "The intense R&D, the need to move to modern and leading-edge nodes, the massive capital investments required, we just simply view that smaller players simply won't be able to keep up and foundries without leading-edge capabilities will be left behind."

Intel's biggest ever-deals to date were buying Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017 and Altera for $16.7 billion in 2015, but it tends to focus on developing products in-house, according to Synovus portfolio manager Dan Morgan.

"Intel is more of a company that likes to do it within," Morgan told Insider. 

In 2019, Intel bought the AI chip startup Habana Labs for $2 billion and analysts say that if it were to go on a buying spree now, it would likely acquire other startups working on artificial intelligence. In particular, it would potentially be interested in firms that could boost its capabilities in training AI algorithms and helping them "learn." 

"I would look at AI startups," Vijay Rakesh, managing director at Mizuho Securities, told Insider. "Based on their roadmap and what they're moving to, that would be something they're interested in."

Besides AI, analysts say Intel may be interested in startups that could help it expand into other categories like Internet of Things, telecom, or edge computing, or its bread-and-butter of data centers, chips, and manufacturing. 

"Manufacturing was always a crown jewel for Intel," Glenn O'Donnell, vice president and research director at Forrester, told Insider. "Many semiconductor companies have gone fabless. They design the chips, but don't make them. The ability to manufacture your chips was, for a long time, one of its superpowers. It's lost a lot of that mojo over the past several years — it needs to catch up again."

Still, its own huge, recent investment in fabs could dissuade it from looking outward: 

"That is where a lot of their time and manpower will be deployed — get back up and running — and less on finding the next M&A that moves the needle for them," Logan Purk, senior analyst at Edward Jones, told Insider. 

Here are 10 companies Intel could acquire, according to analysts:

GlobalFoundries

Intel was reportedly in talks to acquire GlobalFoundries for $30 billion, the Wall Street Journal first reported in July. GlobalFoundries has denied any conversations, but analysts say an acquisition would make sense to help Intel fend off competitors. It has now confidentially filed for an IPO, Reuters reported.

GlobalFoundries previously belonged to chip rival AMD, before spinning out in 2008.

"It would be a whopper of a deal, but it would instantly give Intel some badly needed fab capacity," O'Donnell said. "As the new CEO, Pat Gelsinger still has license to make a huge move like this. The rumor mill is abuzz about a possible deal. It's plausible."

Groq

The AI startup Groq builds tensor processing units (TPUs), or chips specifically for AI and machine learning.

Groq has raised a total of $362.55 million, according to PitchBook. Futurum Research analyst principal analyst Dan Newman said that Groq could be an acquisition target for Intel as it builds out its AI capabilities.

DataRobot

DataRobot, which Intel Capital backs, builds software that finds the best AI model to perform predictive analytics on a company's data. It has raised a total of $1.25 billion and is valued at $6.55 billion, according to PitchBook. 

"The acquisition of DataRobot could help broaden the company's predictive analytics AI capabilities," Morgan said.

Lumiata

Lumiata, which is backed by Intel Capital, is a healthcare AI startup that provides hospitals with predictive AI analytics capabilities on patient data to help access more accurate information about symptoms, diagnoses, and medications. It's raised $45 million, according to PitchBook.

"A potential acquisition of Lumiata could flesh out Intel's existing AI solutions beyond the autonomous vehicle market to also include the lucrative health-care space," Morgan said.

SiFive

Intel is reportedly considering buying the chip company SiFive for $2 billion, Bloomberg reported in June. This could help it compete against Arm, which Nvidia plans to acquire to build powerful AI chips. SiFive has raised a total of $190.59 million, according to PitchBook.

"As Nvidia starts to do land grabs, Intel wants to defend against that," Wayne Lam, senior director at CCS Insight, told Insider.

Graphcore

Graphcore is "pushing the boundaries of compute power," Mizuho Securities analyst Rakesh wrote in a recent note to clients.

It's been building intelligent processing unit chips that can run powerful AI applications. It has raised $788.4 million at a $3.72 billion valuation, according to PitchBook.

Cerebras

Mizuho Securities analyst Rakesh says that Cerebras is a rising competitor in the chip market that builds a "wafer-scale chip to drive better performance, efficiency, scalability and cost."

It's designed to run powerful AI and machine learning applications and has raised $475 million at an over $2.4 billion valuation, the company says.

SambaNova

The AI startup SambaNova, which is backed by Intel Capital, is a "high-momentum" company, Mizuho Securities analyst Rakesh wrote in a recent note to clients.

It offers machine learning as a subscription-based service and builds AI chips. It's raised $1.14 billion and is now valued at $5 billion, according to PitchBook. 

"This company takes a novel approach to data as the focus of computing," O'Donnell said.

Lightmatter

Lightmatter develops a light-powered AI chip that can do computations faster than other chips while consuming less power. That makes its chips useful for applications that require image recognition, understanding text and speech, and more.

It has raised a total of $113 million and is valued at $240 million, according to PitchBook.

"After four decades in the tech biz, it's hard to find a company that truly excites me, but this one does," O'Donnell said. 

Mythic

Mythic builds chip technology for desktops, consumer electronics, wearables, and more. It uses AI to ensure that its chips have high performance and power.

Mythic has raised $165.2 million, the company says and PitchBook pegs its valuation at $470 million. O'Donnell called its technology "Holy Grail among chipmakers."

"This combo is especially important in Edge Computing, which is the new Gold Rush in the tech world," O'Donnell said.

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